Remembering Yawei and Zheng

Campus and community honor students killed in fire

Nearly 400 people gathered for a memorial service in Albert Taylor Hall to remember two students whose lives were cut short in an October apartment fire.

Yawei Fan, 23, and Zheng Lin, 22, came to ESU through an exchange program with Liaoning Normal University in Dalian, China.

Fan’s and Lin’s parents and other family members attended the service along with ESU faculty, staff and students as well as members of the Emporia community. During the service, the parents were presented with framed Chinese translations of resolutions from ESU’s Associated Student Government commemorating the students.

Each family also was presented with each child’s degree recognition and a copy of a condolence letter from Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, which also was read in Chinese by Dr. Eric Yang, a biology professor with ties to the Liaoning province in China.